POTTSVILLE — Five firefighters from the Pottsville Fire Department will head to Colorado this summer.

Pottsville Fire Chief Brad Judkins and four of his fellow firefighters will attend a three-day training course near Pueblo, Colo. Funded in full by Union Pacific Railroad, the course will educate firefighters in the proper handling of crude oil accidents.

“Union Pacific and most railways are increasing the volume of transported oil,” Judkins said. “With the increase comes the higher risk of accidents. Union Pacific has found that many fire departments near railways have not been trained to properly handle an emergency involving crude oil.”

Judkins said Union Pacific will provide all transportation and on-site training free of cost, providing training opportunities to fire departments across the United States.

“These opportunities don’t come by volunteer fire departments that often,” Judkins said. “The class itself, per person, costs in the neighborhood of $2,000. That’s not counting the traveling and boarding expenses. I will take every chance I can to get my guys trained and prepared.”

The training sessions, according to Judkins, will most likely involve hands-on training, but that the remainder of training is document-based.

“From what I know, approximately 60-70 percent of the training will be real-time training,” Judkins said. “They will issue us a thumb drive so that we can store the information they give us during the training.”

Judkins said the training will progress even after returning from Colorado, as the data and hands-on experience will be shared with Pottsville firefighters who did not attend the training.

“Union Pacific’s goal and a goal I hope to see in the future, is a higher level of preparedness in these rural areas,” Judkins said. “If such an emergency were to happen in Pope County or in a neighboring county, we would be better prepared to handle that kind of emergency. That’s a great thing.”